We farewelled our Schloss in the morning, but before long we were headed to another castle – Burg Trausnitz, which is perched on a hill above the city of Landshut, and which was the venue for the final day of the Bavarian O Tour. We’d been promised orienteering in and around the castle and on the steep slopes of the surrounding park. As we walked in, we could see just how steep it was, although there were tracks all over the place. I decided to drop down to the Open Short course, preferring to minimise my downhills.  We were assembled on the rather pleasant Swedish Meadow, which was actually an apple orchard.  The start and finish were both adjacent, which made a nice change from the remote starts and finishes of the other events.

Arena – the Swedish Meadow

Castle on a hill

My first control was straight over the drawbridge, into the castle courtyard, and swing left to the fountain.  Then it was down some steps to a terrace, and follow a narrow path hugging the interior wall. Two more controls were in the castle grounds, before I was sent out into the park.

First control

I stayed high for the next few controls, easy to find from the tracks.  Then I got to the petting zoo, which was full of over-excited kids in pushers all clamouring to see the animals.  I got myself a bit confused and wasted about 5 minutes running in the wrong direction.

Once I sorted that out, it was more easy track running, until the leg to the final control.  This one involved a very long  downhill down what seemed like hundreds of steps, across a gully, then back up the other side, also up a seemingly endless staircase.  The final control was just outside the castle wall, and the finish chute was through the little gatehouse.

Final control

Finish

Most notable in the M60 competition was that Ian was well ahead of Ted for a significant part of the course (but unfortunately not all of it).

Ian finishing his Bavarian O-Tour

Wandering around afterwards, I was able to admire the views down into the old town, and across to the tallest brick church spire in the world.  More on that later …  I retraced the early part of my course to see what I had missed, and realised this was in fact a Proper Castle, with a defensive double wall to boot. It was all rather impressive.

Courtyard

Looking at the highest brick church spire in the world

Landshut from above

A proper castle

Outer wall

Inner wall

It was time to head down into the town.  We went to the prize giving ceremony, where the winners and placegetters received large shiny medals and plenty of accolades. Alas, we did not have a souvenir of that nature to bring home.

We joined our final guided tour, which started with the brick Salzstadel, or salt store. I felt like I was back in Hamburg.  Brick is an unusual building material in Bavaria, and not much of it survives in Landshut, with one notable exception. More on that later.

Salt store

Landshut has a lovely wide main street, which along with the pastel painted facades, gives an impression of light and spaciousness. It helped that the public holiday kept the crowds away.  We were taken inside the Town Hall, where the state room was adorned with elaborate frescoes, depicting a very important medieval wedding.  This marriage is re-enacted every four years, with 2400 performers, and an audience from all over the world.

Landshut main street

Married at First Sight

We were also shown a painstakingly crafted 3D contour model of the town and castle.  The guide thought it very funny that the orienteers all wanted to retrace their routes from this morning!

We were all more interested in the contours than the buildings

We saw some other lovely facades, and eventually wound up at the cathedral, topped with the aforementioned spire.  The story goes that the townsfolk resented the wealthy dukes in their castle on the hill, so they built the tower higher than the castle, just to prove that they were no less important.  It is certainly impressive, but you cant go up to the top so we had to content ourselves with craning our necks upwards from ground level.

The spire from below

Cathedral interior

Landshut old town

Our overnight hotel was somewhat less salubrious than previous accommodation. It was close to the airport, and cheap, with free parking.  We had to hunt down dinner, but being a holiday, a lot of places were closed. The first place we tried, a pizza restaurant promising GF, told us they’d closed down the kitchen, at 7.30.  Google directed us to a burger place in the old town of Erding.  Parking was a major problem, resulting in the first navigational “domestic”.  Finally we managed to grab a spot, and locate the place (easier said than done). The burgers were good, but we no longer had time for our planned swim and spa, so it was back to the hotel to do The Big Pack for our early flights in the morning.